Work in Progress: Greene's Virginia Regiments.

Sometimes I get captured by a period and put everything else down to work on it.  June it was Spanish Civil War, July and August it is the American Revolution.  As I've stated previously, I'm very interested in Greene's Southern campaign.  That's after the disaster at Camden, but includes Cowpens, the race to the Dan, Weitzel's Mill, Cowan's Ford, Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, Eutaw Springs and maybe throw in the Siege of Ninety-Six.

So how does this play into my painting projects?  To do these actions there are four Continental units I have to have:  1st and 2nd Maryland, and 4th and 5th Virginia.  In their first actions these units are good sized 300-400 men.  But as the campaign winds down both get much smaller. In my 1:10 scale, those are some BIG units.  The two Maryland battalions weigh in at 36 figures, the two Virginia units at 40 figures each.  My 1st Maryland are all Front Rank figures, and one of my favorite battalions.  I painted it in the early 90's for an early Enfilade project, and they've held up well.  I painted my 2nd Maryland during the school year last year.  They're Perry figures.  I like them, but I'm a bit less wild about the paint job.  Somehow my effort at combining washes of lighter areas, such as trousers and shirts, and highlighting the brown coats didn't work out so well. Just didn't get the contrast right.The 1st Maryland were studs, veterans of the units destroyed at Camden.  The 2nd Maryland not so much.  They were trained but green at Guilford, and when they broke, it forced Greene's decision to retire from the battlefield.

I just finished the 4th Virginia.  It's a big unit and took me most of the month to complete it.  I used a combination of Old Glory Continentals in firing line and Continentals in hunting shirts firing.  Neither of these packs of figures are top of the line in terms of posing or accuracy.  The hunting shirt figures even have cuffs with buttons.  Nevertheless, I am too cheap to just not do them, and too lazy to do 16 or so figure conversions.  The 4th Virginia was one of three large trained, but unblooded undits in Greene's main (third) line at Guilford Courthouse. On the table, that's ten stands, fifteen inches frontage.  This unit also fought at Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs, though in much smaller versions in the subsequent actions.  I gave them the Trumbull standard with the rectangular array of stars and one in the middle.  They are six-pointed stars and I'm not sure I did such a good job with that.

I'm currently working on the 5th Virginia Regiment, brigaded with the 4th and commanded by Isaac Huger. It's another massive paint job, with 40 figures at 1:10.  These are Perry figures.  I love painting them because of the potential varieties in figures.  When I ordered them last Christmas, I decided on the shoulder arms pose.  Not one I usually choose.  I love the firing line figures, and the advancing poses, but, at least with the Perrys I've discovered a disadvantage in this.  They're busy enough that cramming them all on stand with muskets pointing hither and yon can lead to problems with adjacent bases, so I just kept it simple.  There is a combination of four different figure styles here-southern Continentals in regimentals, Southern continentals in single breasted coats, southern Continentals in shirt sleeve order, and black troops.  All of them are very nice and fairly easy to paint.   Lots of animation and variations. I've begun work on the twelve figures in regimentals.

Got some birthday cash and earned a little extra pay working at J-Camp a couple of weeks ago, so I've invested in enough Perry British infantry in Southern dress to paint the two Guards battalions at Guilford.  Ahh, another endless project.